Contributed by John Herrmann on Nov 14, 2008
Barbara Brown Taylor writes "Fear is a small cell with no air in it and no light. It is suffocating inside and dark. There is no room to turn around inside it. You can only face in one direction, but it hardly matters since you cannot see anyhow. There is no future in the dark. Everything
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Contributed by Scott Jensen on Nov 12, 2008
My wife and I have invested in some exercise equipment through the years. We’ve bought a stationary bike, an exercise ball, a weight set and even an Abs-machine. But, most of these items never met their intended goal. Our tone didn’t improve like we intended and we didn’t get stronger. Why?
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Contributed by John Herrmann on Nov 7, 2008
Condoleeza Rice, Sec. of State recently said after another failure of Peace talks in Israel and Palestine that Peace will not come in a sudden and dramatic event, but rather gradually.” Not so this second coming of Christ. It is an act of God confronting us as something from the other side,
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Contributed by John Herrmann on Nov 7, 2008
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Conrad Lehndorff writes in his East Prussian Diary, that the housewives still did their housework and their Easter baking and the theaters continued to show movies while the Soviet army, near but as yet undetected, launched its deadly pincers movement. “We go to work in the morning and sit in
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Contributed by John Herrmann on Nov 7, 2008
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Desperate, the foolish bridesmaids asked of the others, for some of their oil. But the wise replied: “No! There will not be enough for you and for us. . Go yourselves and buy some from the dealers.”
Their action seems almost selfish for Christians who are taught to share and share alike, to
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Contributed by Scott Jensen on Oct 24, 2008
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Attitude can be changed simply by humbly coming to God, ready to receive what He offers, even if it's not the answer we expected.
The story is told of an old man who lived on a farm in the mountains of eastern Kentucky with his young grandson. Each morning, Grandpa was up early sitting at the
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Contributed by Scott Jensen on Oct 8, 2008
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Before performing a baptism, the pastor approached the young
father and said solemnly, "Baptism is a serious step. Are
you prepared for it?"
"I think so," the man replied. "My wife has made appetizers
and we have a caterer coming to provide plenty of cookies and
cakes for all of our guests."
"I
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Contributed by Scott Jensen on Oct 8, 2008
A Baptist congregation installed a new full immersion baptistery in the sanctuary as part of an extensive remodeling project. But the county building inspector wouldn’t okay its’ installation. “I can’t,” he said, “unless it has a separate septic tank.”
The trusties couldn’t understand why a
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Contributed by Scott Jensen on Oct 8, 2008
My Stripes
Many years ago I was enlisted in the Air Force and competed for promotion to Technical Sergeant. I was a Staff Sergeant that had been recognized as one of the best. I had fire wall 5 performance reports and had been Group NCO of the Year for two consecutive years. I had all the right
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Contributed by Scott Jensen on Oct 8, 2008
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Preach the Right Message
Take a look at the example of Pastor Carlton Pearson from Tulsa, Oklahoma. By all standards, he was a very successful preacher with a church of over 5,000 members. Well-known for being a powerful speaker, he reached many and continued to grow his church.
However, one
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Contributed by Scott Jensen on Sep 11, 2008
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Love is self-sacrifice for others. In the magazine The Christian Leader, Don Ratzlaff retells a story from Ernest Gordon’s Miracle on the River Kwai, a story based on World War II events. The Scottish soldiers, forced by their Japanese captors to labor on a jungle railroad, had degenerated to
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Contributed by Scott Jensen on Sep 11, 2008
There was an old monastery that had fallen upon hard times. It was once a great order, but as a result of waves of persecution in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the rise of secularism in the nineteenth century, all its branch houses were lost and it had become decimated to the extent
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Contributed by Curt Cizek on Aug 9, 2008
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Last week during fellowship, I told some of you about a scene from the Dark Knight, the new Batman movie. Have any of you seen the movie?
The Joker threatens the city of Gotham, so the mayor decides to begin evacuating the city. The prison is emptied and put on a ferry to carry them away so that
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Contributed by Curt Cizek on Aug 9, 2008
Because our sins of prejudice have been paid for, God calls us to judge correctly.
In the movie "Shallow Hal" Hal, played by Jack Black, sees people based on their outward beauty. He is then hypnotized by the self-help guru, Tony Robbins. For the rest of the movie, he sees the people around him
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Contributed by Rick Bezanson on Jul 31, 2008
I was performing a wedding for a young couple. Before the wedding, the groom came to me and said, “Pastor, I will give you $100 if you change the wedding vows. When you get to the part to ask me to honor, love and obey, just leave that part out for me. Then, he handed me $100. During the wedding,
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Contributed by Rick Bezanson on Jul 31, 2008
There were six people trapped in a dark, cold cave. They each had a stick of wood. The fire in the middle of the cave was starting to go out. The first woman refused to put her wood in the fire because there was someone she didn’t like in the circle. The next man held onto his stick of wood
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Contributed by Rick Bezanson on Jul 29, 2008
Sparky Anderson the great baseball manager who won many pennants and a world championship, said,” I’m not lying when I say that this religion is so important to me. If I had one great wish, it would be that I could honestly say that I was one of God’s children. That is the one emptiness I
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Contributed by Rick Bezanson on Jul 29, 2008
Calvin of Calvin and Hobbs cartoon fame gets dressed in his special clothes for school. He goes to school. He sits on some bubble gum, gets beat up by a bully, fails a test at school and gets rained on the way home. At bedtime he
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Contributed by Rick Bezanson on Jul 29, 2008
JUST STAY IN THE RACE
Charlton Heston had to learn how to drive a chariot with four horses for his part in the movie Ben Hur. After many weeks of chariot lessons he told the director, "I think I can drive the chariot all right, but I'm not at all sure I can actually win
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